Superbowl

From The News Tribune

This Super Bowl season, a certain bird has been dominating headlines. The Seattle Seahawks, of course, who are slated to take on the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX on Feb. 8.

At the Point Defiance Zoo, there’s another bird getting extra attention this time of year: Forrest, who is the zoo’s most superb owl, according to zookeepers.

A Eurasian eagle owl, Forrest has lived at the Point Defiance Zoo for almost all 20 years of his life. He stands at over a foot tall (he should be close to 2 ft / 60 cm tall) and weighs four pounds (1.8 kg), but his massive wingspan and the formidable expression that perpetually lives on his face gives him a frightening look.

In reality, Forrest is actually an incredibly charming bird, according to staff biologist Erica Baker. He’s comfortable and confident around people because he was raised around them. He’s also known to be chatty, Baker said. “If we are walking near his habitat that he lives in, you’ll hear him making sounds that are not necessarily a hoot, which is more of a territorial call, he’ll do a lot of other smaller chirps and things that are more friendly chatter to the keepers around,” she told The News Tribune.

The recent surge in Forrest’s popularity comes as some Super Bowl fans engage in the annual tradition of attempting to search “Super Bowl” and end up typing in “Superb Owl” instead. It’s an annual cultural phenomenon that might have started as a typo or as a joke, NPR reported. At Point Defiance Zoo, it’s a chance to talk about Forrest. It’s his charisma and personality that have made him a fixture in the Wild Wonders outdoor theater and the daily “animal encounters” programming the zoo puts on. The event is a chance for zoo visitors to see some of its animals in action, and Forrest often closes out the event with big swooping flights from one end of the auditorium to the other, squawking as he is known to do.

Forrest, a Eurasian eagle owl, takes flight during a daily “animal encounters” program.

His performance often elicits literal oohs and ahhs, Baker said. “Most people are just in awe,” she said. His time at the zoo hasn’t always been straightforward. In 2014 he flew off during a rehearsal for his performance at the outdoor theater. Baker said it was a windy day and a handful of crows mobbed him as he was flying out. His keepers think he got confused and flew out and got lost in Point Defiance Park, she said. It started a three-day search to find the missing owl, which flew straight to his keepers once they found him. When he’s not impressing guests in the Wild Wonders outdoor theater, Forrest likes to eat mice and sometimes rabbits as a treat. He also enjoys what his keepers call “enrichment,” which for Forrest entails shredding heads of cabbage into pulp with his massive talons. This Super Bowl season, zoo staff are trading the cabbage heads for coconuts – to look like footballs. “He doesn’t eat it, he just likes to shred it,” Baker said.

Forrest, a Eurasian eagle owl, swoops in on a piece of mouse meat placed in an enclosure.

On game day, Baker estimates that Forrest will likely be out flying, and if he’s not flying he’ll be shredding something. Forrest isn’t a huge fan of hawks – his neighbor at the zoo is a Harris hawk, and the birds of prey can be competitive with each other. But he’s definitely a Seahawks fan, she said. “I think Forrest would make an excellent wide receiver,” Baker said. Visit Forrest at the Point Defiance Zoo’s Wild Wonders outdoor theater located at 2 North Waterfront Drive in Tacoma. As of Jan. 9, visitors sporting Seahawks gear will get $5 off general admission tickets.